Rose Rain Howell, 18, Missing Since April 2003, From Bellingen, North Coast, NSW

[blighted star]

http://z13.invisionfree.com/Porchlig...?showtopic=208

Rose Rain HOWELL DOB: 1984 HAIR: dark brown/black Mohawk BUILD: med EYES: hazel/green Brown

CIRCUMSTANCES: Rose is Aboriginal and is described as approximately 160-165cms tall, short dark brown/black Mohawk haircut on top and sides of head shaved (zero cut). She has hazel/green eyes, thin eyebrows, 2 small moles on her left forehead about 1cm apart below hairline, small mole on left side of neck and olive skin. She was last seen wearing a black tank top, dark grey jeans, black belt with silver buckle and black boots. Rose was last seen in the Bellingen town-ship on Friday the 11th of April 2003. When last seen Rose was in good spirits and was organising her birthday party. She has not been spoken to or sighted since and there are concerns for her welfare. Reported missing to: Bellingen Police Station.

Police Renew Appeal For Missing Woman - Coffs Harbour

11 April 2005

On the 12 April 2005, Rose Rain Howell has been missing for 2 years . Operation Chelonia was established to investigate her disappearance. Police believe she may have been the victim of foul play. On the morning of Friday 11 April, Rose left her mother's home in Bundagen, about 20km south of Coffs Harbour. She went to the library in Bellingen and worked on invitations to her 19th birthday party, (Monday 21 April 2003). After Rose left the library an unknown person drove her from Bellingen and dropped off about 5:00pm at Marx Hill, several kilometres away. It is unclear how Rose left Marx Hill but it is believed she was picked up by another motorist.

The last sighting of Rose was at 5:30pm on 11 April when she was seen hitchhiking north on the Pacific Highway near the Old Pacific Highway turn-off to Perry Hill and Repton.

Rose is 20-years-old, she is described as being of white appearance, about 160-165cm tall with olive skin, hazel/green eyes, thin eyebrows and 2 moles about 1cm apart below the hairline with another mole on the left side of her neck. At the time of her disappearance she had short dark brown hair with the sides shaved and a Mohawk on top. She was wearing a black tank top, dark grey jeans, a black belt with a silver buckle and black boots.

Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Rose Rain Howell is urged to contact Coffs Harbour Police on 6652 0299 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000

Appeal from Rose's mother

An outgoing woman with a short, dark mohawk and hazel-green eyes, Rose Howell was last seen on Friday, April 11, 2003, walking along Perry's Road in Repton, NSW. Rose turned 20 in April this year, and at the time she disappeared had just been invited to join a band. Her mother Malila tells her story ...

As my daughter Rose left with friends for Bellingen, I said to her, "Let me know if you need a lift home."

Rose, my youngest of four, was planning a big party at home on April 21 ? the day after her 19th birthday. We live at Repton, which is about a 15-minute drive from Bellingen in northern NSW.

Rose spent the day in town making invitations on the Bellingen library's computer and personally delivering them to her friends. She didn't come home that night, but she often stayed in town overnight. However, by Sunday morning I was seriously worried.

Though Rose is a determined and independent young woman, I knew she hadn't run away ? her mobile, electric bass and the rest of her belongings were at home. She was looking forward to her party and was excited because she'd been invited to join a band. When she didn't turn up for her appointments in Coffs Harbour on Monday, I went to the police. They didn't think she'd run away, either.

We found out Rose had been coming home when she vanished. She had hitched to the corner of the Old Pacific Highway and Perry's Road at about 5.30-6pm and started walking. Rose was within five kilometres of home ? but she didn't make it there.

It was dusk and raining when someone saw her at the top of Perry's Hill. This was the last time anyone saw her.
?
I put up posters in Bellingen, describing her ? 160-165cm tall, hazel-green eyes, with a very short, dark mohawk and wearing a black singlet top, charcoal-coloured jeans and black boots.

The police don't have any clues. Their only lead is an anonymous letter from May 28 last year but no-one came forward when I went on television to appeal to the writer.

The local community has raised a $20,000 reward for accurate information about Rose's location.

All I can do is keep putting up posters and talking to the media. I'll never let go of hope. Rose, if you're out there somewhere, please let me know. I miss you.

If you have any information, please call Coffs Harbour police station on (02) 6652 0299.

- with thanks to WOMAN'S DAY magazine

[blighted star]

http://www.australianmissingpersonsr...RoseHowell.htm

Rose Howell

By Liz Keen - ABC

2 August, 2011 11:13AM AEST

It's Missing Person's Week and Katya Quigley spoke to the mother of a Bellingen woman who has been missing since 2003

One of the worst fears for any parent is the thought of their child going missing. Around 35,000 people are reported missing in Australia each year - that's one person every 15 minutes. While 95% of missing persons are found within a week, there are currently 1,600 people who have been missing for more than six months.

It's missing person's week and the slogan for the week this year is "When someone goes missing. More than one person is lost"

Detective Inspector Cameron Lindsay told Elloise Farrow Smith that there are more than 20 long term missing people on the Coffs Coast. He said that people shouldn't hesitate to contact police if they are concerned about a family member or friend who is missing. "What we say to people is not to wait 24 hours to report that someone is missing. If they've actually got fears for their safety and their location is unknown. It's not a crime to go missing," he said.

Rose Howell went missing in the Bellingen area on Friday April 11 2003, she was only 18 at the time. Her mother, Malila Howell, told Katya Quigley she felt worried about Rose the day she went missing when she didn't come home or call.

"After three days it was something's wrong, something's gone wrong, what's going on? Where is she? And then you kind of get desperate as the time goes past and you haven't got an answer to this right in your face, really important question and there's no way you can get an answer," she said.

"She was last seen on Perry's Hill on the evening of the day she went missing," Malila said. "Some weeks afterwards the police got an anonymous letter with details in it that they tried to follow up that intimated that she was dead."

"I went to all her haunts and places that she knew and talked to all her friends and I put posters up around Bellingen and around the area."

She said she is always wondering, and thinking about Rose. "You go on with life because that's what you do and it's like all the time you carry along this black hole with you," she said.

Detective Inspector Lindsay appealed for anyone who has any information about Rose Howell to please contact Coffs Harbour police on 6652 0299. He also said that anyone who is missing to please contact family or friends. "We would appeal to any person that hasn't been in contact with their family and next of kin for a long period of time to get in contact."

Malila said that if Rose is listening, she would like to send her love to her. "If you're alive I'd really like to know that you are and there's a big hole in life where you used to be but I hope your life is going well," she said.

[blighted star]

Maree Howell, with a picture of her daughter Rose Rain.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2012-1...idence/4422994

Rose Howell inquest adjourned over new evidence

WED 12 DEC 2012, 8:46 AM AEDT

New evidence was yesterday, presented to a Coronial Inquest into the disappearance of a mid north coast teenager almost 10-years ago.

It led to the inquest being adjourned until January 25, 2013.

Lead detective Peter Watt told the court he's seeking leave to travel to Sydney and interview a person of interest who is currently in custody.

Police are investigating whether "Prisoner A" was involved in the disappearance of Rose Howell who was hitch hiking home to Bundagen east of Bellingen on the 11th of April 2003.

A call was made to Crimestoppers about the teenager's disappearance a few weeks ago.

The inquest also heard evidence from Rose's mother and a new witness, yesterday.

Rose Howell's mother told the court she doesn't believe her daughter committed suicide or ran away to start a new life after she disappeared.

The teenager went missing while hitch hiking home to Bundagen from the Bellingen library where she'd been working on invitations for her 19th birthday party.

Malila Howell says she thinks her daughter was murdered or has been kept prisoner since she vanished.

A smash repair operator gave new evidence that he'd seen the girl on the Old Pacific Highway on either the 3rd or 13th of April.

Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon has formally adjourned the matter until next month so police can collect a formal statement, from the 'person of interest' who is currently in jail.

Coroner's doubt over confession regarding Rose Howell disappearance

Rose Howell, pictured here in a 2003 copy photo,was last seen getting into a car on the Pacific Highway near Bellingen. Source: Supplied

A VIOLENT armed robber who was just 15 when north coast teen Rose Howell disappeared has confessed nearly a decade later to being involved in her abduction and murder.

The criminal's "admission" was revealed as a coroner yesterday gave his findings into the 18-year-old's 2003 disappearance - which he ruled could not definitely be linked to the man, who may have only put himself forward to get publicity while in jail.

Ms Howell, recognisable in her tight-knit community by her mohawk haircut, was last seen as she tried to hitchhike from Bellingen, near Coffs Harbour, after using the local library's computers to prepare invitations for her 19th birthday party. She did not return to her Bungagen home and her family have not seen or heard from her since.

Last December the inmate, "Prisoner A", contacted Crime Stoppers to finger himself and an unidentified accomplice for Ms Howell's death.

Prisoner A, now 25, was jailed for more than seven years for armed robberies at Newcastle, committed two months after he was released on parole for similar crimes.

He identified a burial site, which was scoured last month with the help of a cadaver dog but nothing was found.

Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon said Prisoner A's claims "cannot be ignored" although there was no solid evidence to support his confessions or for charges to be laid. "There is also a serious question as to whether or not he had the opportunity to be involved in Rose's disappearance due to the restrictions placed on his movements about the time Rose went missing," he said.

Prisoner A had a criminal history from age 13 and was consistently in and out of the juvenile justice system.

The coroner was told Corrective Services had "some concern" the inmate was in close contact with another prisoner who was receiving "considerable media attention" and Prisoner A may have been using his claims to generate some publicity for himself.

Mr MacMahon said Ms Howell, a young woman with a "strong an independent personality", probably died "at the hands of some unknown third party" and referred the case to the Unsolved Homicide Unit,
PETER BODKIN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 28, 2013 12:00AM

INQUEST INTO DISAPPEARANCE OF GIRL NEAR COFFS HARBOUR

December 11, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Link to news vid re Inquest

http://www.nbnnews.com.au/index.php/...coffs-harbour/

[blighted star]

[QUOTE]
The mystery of missing Rose: girl with the distinctive mohawk likely killed, says coroner


Rose Rain Howell's mother would love to think her daughter is alive and well, living under a new identity somewhere.

But a NSW coroner has referred the case of the autistic girl with the distinctive mohawk hairstyle who disappeared more than a decade ago to the unsolved homicide unit.

It's likely Ms Howell, who had spent the morning designing invitations to her 19th birthday at a library, met with foul play some time after she was last seen by her family on April 11, 2003, Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon said.

Ms Howell was last seen travelling towards her Bundagen home in northern NSW on that day - just over a week before her birthday.

A subsequent police investigation failed to find her or establish any circumstances of her disappearance.

In inquest findings handed down on Thursday, Mr MacMahon said Ms Howell's mother Malila "would love to think that Rose was alive and well, living under a new identity".

But he found it was more probable than not she died at or about the time of her disappearance and it was likely at the hands of another or others.

Describing Ms Howell as "strong and independent", he said the teen was eagerly organising her 19th birthday celebrations when she vanished.

Despite reported sightings of Ms Howell at Coffs Harbour in May, Mr MacMahon was satisfied she was last seen walking along the side of a road in the direction of her house on April 11.

She had been hitchhiking earlier that evening.

Shortly before the inquest into her disappearance late last year a prisoner in Long Bay contacted Crime Stoppers claiming to have been involved in her death.

But a subsequent investigation failed to uncover anything and Mr MacMahon found the inmate, known only as "Prisoner A", could not be relied upon.

While it was likely Ms Howell met with foul play, he said there was insufficient evidence to make a finding on the cause and manner of her death.

He referred the matter to NSW Police unsolved homicide unit.[/QUOTE

[blighted star]

That's the first time I've seen it mentioned that Rose had autism. She's from the same general area as the 3 Aboriginal kids who all went missing in the early 90's from the same street in Bowraville, a small town on the NSW North Coast. Two of the three were found murdered & though their killer is known, he's never been convicted & has a job working with at-risk North Coast kids today.

I could be wrong, but a lot of missing NSW indigenous kids seem to disappear from the North Coast. Maybe they just report better up there these days after the shame of Bowraville? I dunno, maybe there really are more missing up there?- there are 3 confirmed serial murders of Aboriginal kids in the area so I guess it's possible.

I guess there's really no way to tell unless I dig through the Aus missing persons sites & see whether my first impression's right or wrong. Someone has started a seperate Indigenous Missing section, but they rely on families to request inclusion of their missing loved ones, so there could be quite a few listing that haven't been included.



ETA I don't mean to imply the cases are linked. The north coast is big for hippies, backpackers & hitch-hiking. There are long distances between towns & hitching is probably more common there than a lot of other areas. The Pacific Highway runs up the coast to Queensland & it's a major I/state trucking route. Drivers can pick up a hitch-hiker in QLD & take them 1000's of kilometres down through NSW & Victria & across in South Australia. Someone abducted on the North Coast could be halfway across the country by the time the first missing reports are being taken by police - & there's SO MUCH bush in between the North Coast & Sydney that they wouldn't need to travel I/state to conceal a crime to begin with. The bush is vast. Really, really vast.

NSW is a little bigger than Texas & this is what it's like on a lot of NSW non-urban highways -

[trepid]

Why does the Pacific Highway sound really familiar?

Have there been other people disappear hitch hiking that stretch over the years? Ivan Milat related maybe? I don't know ... I've definitely heard of this road before though.

Ah N.S.W. The state of the big vanish..

[bowieluva]

You may be confusing it with the PCH, Pacific Coast Highway, on the west coast of the States, which is one of the moat famous highways in the country.

[g r ee n ey e s]

I kinda dig the fact her name was rose rain and she had a crazy mohawk.

[blighted star]

It might be this one Trepid's thinking of? The government's getting blasted over it a fair bit lately so it gets quite a few mentions in the Aus media, especially around election time because one side likes to blame the other for not having implemented the recommendations made by the NSW Coroner 2 decades ago. Follow the brown line along the coast above Sydney & you'll come to the town Rose disappeared from.



Byron Bay, Lismore & Nimbin are up there so sometimes it hits the news when a movie star or rock star buys a holiday house or visits, but mostly it's in the news for being notorious. It's been called Death Highway & Highway Hell, not just because of disappearing hitch-hikers, but also because it's the worst road for fatal vehicle collisions in the entire country - & that's a pretty major achievement considering the size of Australia & the state of our roads. It was always notorious amongst locals & interstate truck drivers but the tourist bus crashes in October & December 1989 made the whole country aware of it.


http://www.theherald.com.au/story/16...talking-about/

In 1989, there were two bus crashes on the Pacific Highway that shocked the nation. In the first, near Grafton, a truck veered to the wrong side hitting a bus, killing 22 and injuring 20 more. Some people lost eight family members in that crash. Two months later, two buses collided head-on at Clybucca, near Kempsey, and 35 people died, 41 more were injured.

2 decades on, it hits the headlines everytime a B-double wipes out another family, because the changes recommended by the NSW Coroner after the inquest into the October & December bus crashes still haven't been implemented.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politi...1113-ielp.html

... 20 years since two head-on bus crashes at Kempsey and Grafton on the NSW North Coast killed 56 people.

That's 20 years since the NSW coroner at the time, Kevin Waller, ruled the highway should be dual carriageway from Hexham (near Newcastle) to the Queensland border because separating oncoming traffic is the only way to prevent head-on collisions, which account for most of the highway's fatalities. It is the nation's most dangerous road.

...50 per cent of the highway remains undivided despite the spending of nearly $3.5 billion. Since 1989 more than 800 people have died on the highway and 12,000 have been injured.

"We continue to see people die in these awful head-on collisions," a still angry Waller, 78, said from his Sydney home yesterday. "Someone's gone to sleep and the car is coming straight at them. With a dual carriageway it wouldn't happen. I don't understand why the politicians don't see the benefits.''

There were a bunch of cases Milat was suspected of too - you might be remembering the 2001 inquest Trepid? He definitely worked the Pacific Hwy because he was on an RTA road crew. They'd send the crew to repair stretches of highway all over the state. If it was close enough to a big town, they'd put them up in a motel but when distance made it unfeasible I think they set up camp.

Ivan was known to disappear after work sometimes. I think they got old work logs from the RTA & were matching his work records with long-term missing cases up the North Coast & a few other areas. They could place him in the same general area at the right time, but with no bodies, no physical evidence & no confession (he's never admitted anything, even now, almost 2 decades later) it wasn't enough to close more cases.

http://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/milat-ivan.htm

In June of 2001 Milat appeared at an inquest into the deaths of three women in 1978 and 1979. Robyn Hickie, 17, Amanda Robinson, 14, and Leanne Goodall, 20, all disappeared from an area north of Sydney under similar
circumstances as Milat's known victims. Though Milat attended the inquest, he offered nothing to help investigators and denied having known the women or ever having picked up a hitchhiker in that area.

Some of them, like Trudie Adams, might've been taken by a gang who abducted girls from surf club dances on Sydney's Northern Beaches in the 70's though. I used to work with a lady who was about 15 yrs older than me who was abducted & raped by thisgang. I didn't realise it at the time she told us, but the details matched the reports that started appearing in the papers a few years later when women in their 40's started coming forward after Trudie's brother or boyfriend made an appeal for information. We wanted her to go to the police when we realised because she told us she'd never reported it, but she flipped out & said she'd say she made it up if we told. It's always bothered me in case she had the one missing detail they needed. She told us in 92 or 93 & Trudie's case is still unsolved.

Trudie Adams -
http://m.theaustralian.com.au/news/f...-1226000012806

WALLABIES leap through the long grass, native blossoms sway in the breeze and the throb of cicadas fills the air in a clearing beside a winding bush trail in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney.

But for former NSW police detective Gavin McKean, this is no bush idyll. Beneath the buzz of overhead powerlines, McKean sees a devil's playground where he believes Neville Tween and three accomplices raped and threatened young female hitchhikers during a reign of terror in the 1970s.

McKean's suspicions were made public last week at an inquest at Glebe Coroner's Court into the suspected rape and murder of Sydney teenager Trudie Adams in June 1978.

McKean and Detective Senior Constable Nicole Jones of the Unsolved Homicide Squad were assigned the cold case of Adams's disappearance in 2007. The pair spent over two years devoted to the task before the case was referred to the coroner late last year.

There's quite a few Northern Beaches/Far North Coast girls missing from that era -

Tanya Farrington

Height (cm): 167.0 Build:

Green/Hazel Complexion: Olive

Circumstances - Tanya was last seen at Crows Nest, Sydney on 22 March 1979.

We believe Tanya snuck out of the house the night she went missing, intending to come back before anyone realised she'd gone. It's possible she may have gone to a disco in Manly. We need to know who she was with that night, and what happened to her. It may have been 30 years but Tanya needs to be brought home, and her family need to know what happened. Tanya's life was and IS important.

Police think Tanya Farrington may have set out to hitchhike from the family home at Crows Nest, either to her favourite hangout spot at Manly Wharf or all the way back to her hometown of Port Macquarie. Tony Farrington says his sister's disappearance may be linked to other suspected abductions at the time.

In an interview with Tanya's brother

LUCY MCNALLY(interviewer): Police think Tanya Farrington may have set out to hitchhike from the family home at Crows Nest, either to her favourite hangout spot at Manly Wharf or all the way back to her hometown of Port Macquarie. Tony Farrington says his sister's disappearance may be linked to other suspected abductions at the time.

TONY FARRINGTON: There's heaps of them. You know, between Sydney and Newcastle, that time we've tracked down at least 22 missing people in an 18-month period. And I think most are girls, except for a couple of boys.

Milat of course abducted girls and guys. He tried to abduct British backpacker Paul Onions who was hitch hiking alone. But he also had a thing for couples. He abducted and murdered Germans Gabor Neugebauer & his girlfriend Anja Habschied & Australians Deborah Everist & James Gibson.

Actually, most of these unsolved are pretty big cases over here & they're still doing appeals & trying to I.D people in old photos, so I'll try & do these girls their own threads. You never know who's going to read it here & the more sites that repeat the appeals, the better chance the right person will see it.

[SuchAClassicGirl]

I kinda dig the fact her name was rose rain and she had a crazy mohawk.

I'm kinda wondering if the second part, her appearance, might have contributed to her being murdered :(

[blighted star]

Maybe? but the North Coast of NSW isn't your typical bunch of Australian country towns.



The whole region has had a huge reputation for hippie communes/festivals & dope plantations since the 60's. These days most of the crusty punks from Sydney & Melbourne head up there at some point.

For sure there'll be locals who wish the whole counter-culture/alternative life-style mob would get out & stay out, but they've been there nearly half a century now. These days it's pretty much all the area's known for, so hitch-hikers who look a lot wilder than Rose wouldn't be unusual


They have a bunch of festivals, including the Mardigrass





There's a big enough punk scene up there for Iggy to play Byron Bay earlier this year

[blighted star]

Most of the region is openly pro-marijuana & their festivals are celebrations of "green".




So when the cops do bother having a bust up there, they tend to make sure it's worth the effort. This was a few months ago

http://m.theaustralian.com.au/news/g...-1226613592174







Rose would've been noticeable, but she was living in an area where they're used to seeing alternative lifestylers of every variety. She probably looked quite a bit tamer than a lot of the hippie punks that head up the North Coast to the conservation protests in the rainforests.

This is the Whian Whian Blockade from 94-97


This is happening right now -
Police escort logging trucks from Whian Whian
http://m.northernstar.com.au/news/po...whian/2037437/



It's a long way from Sydney, but it gets a lot of tourists, backpackers & people heading up for festivals, protests, blockades etc - so there's always a huge turnover of hitch-hikers, probably more than any other stretch of highway in Aus.

[bowieluva]

Yeah, Australia isn't Alabama.

[blighted star]

Wow. Rose is on tv right now on the "Outback Coroner" series. I'll see if it turns up on youtube...

[Nic B]

Wow. Rose is on tv right now on the "Outback Coroner" series. I'll see if it turns up on youtube...

Wait, she isn't missing?

[blighted star]

Oh crap, SORRY!! That should probably get some kind of award for badly worded posts. She is missing. Outback Coroner is a relatively new crime show where they follow the coroners who travel the bush court circuit holding inquests into deaths & disappearances in country towns. This was an inquest into her disaappearance. I had to pick up the kids from school so I missed the end but I assume it was the same inquest I posted further up the thread.

I only caught a few minutes but did get to see some witnesses testify. One was the last guy to admit picking her up hitching her way back home from the library in town. He reckons he saw her getting into another car.


From earlier in the thread

In inquest findings handed down on Thursday, Mr MacMahon said Ms Howell's mother Malila "would love to think that Rose was alive and well, living under a new identity".

But he found it was more probable than not she died at or about the time of her disappearance and it was likely at the hands of another or others.

Describing Ms Howell as "strong and independent", he said the teen was eagerly organising her 19th birthday celebrations when she vanished.

Despite reported sightings of Ms Howell at Coffs Harbour in May, Mr MacMahon was satisfied she was last seen walking along the side of a road in the direction of her house on April 11.

She had been hitchhiking earlier that evening.

Shortly before the inquest into her disappearance late last year a prisoner in Long Bay contacted Crime Stoppers claiming to have been involved in her death.

But a subsequent investigation failed to uncover anything and Mr MacMahon found the inmate, known only as "Prisoner A", could not be relied upon.

While it was likely Ms Howell met with foul play, he said there was insufficient evidence to make a finding on the cause and manner of her death.

He referred the matter to NSW Police unsolved homicide unit

(Long Bay is Long Bay Gaol)

I'm glad you asked wtf I was on about, I'd meant to look for more updates last night & forgot - til now, THANX!!.

[u2addict]

blighted star, when I first started reading this thread this morning I immediately thought of the case you also posted about with the 3 kidnapped kids in Bowraville.

Have you heard if anyone suspects it's the same guy that killed those 3?

What a shame, no one has the right to take away someones life.

[blighted star]

blighted star, when I first started reading this thread this morning I immediately thought of the case you also posted about with the 3 kidnapped kids in Bowraville.

Have you heard if anyone suspects it's the same guy that killed those 3?

What a shame, no one has the right to take away someones life.

No official mentions but if he is involved you'd think they'd be on to it. The detective that's been handling the Bowraville case has been involved in that investigation for 20 years - so you'd assume he'd know of Rose's case by now seeing as she went missing 6 yrs or so into his work at Bowraville.

But I don't know. NSW is a big place, a bit bigger than Texas & there's a lot of tiny country police stations up & down the north coast. I don't know if a Detective on a major crime case would see all the missing files unless a junior officer decided they warranted more attention first.

I'm sure though, once they become aware that a kid's moved from "possible runaway" to "probable victim" due to the passage of time, Jay Hart, Ivan Milat & the names of the Hilton & Laurie brothers come up as possibles, depending on the date of disappearance. The Hiltons & Lauries were much further up the coast into Queensland & (I think) only operating in the 1970's but they were seriously fucked-up boys.

I meant to post a thread on these poor girls. I was just a toddler when they disappeared, but this was only solved fairly recently

http://www.smh.com.au/national/unans...729-2qthe.html

At a pre-inquest conference in December, seven "persons of interest" were publicly identified for the first time: Allan John "Shorty" Laurie, Donald "Donny" Laurie, Wayne "Boogie" Hilton and Larry Charles, all of whom had since died, and Desmond "Dessie" Roy Hilton, Allan Neil "Ungie" Laurie and Terrance James "Jimmy" O'Neill, who were directed to appear before the court to give evidence.

The names gave the first hint of the chilling revelations to come: that several young men drawn mainly from two extended families, entangled over several decades by intermarriage and mutual dealings, had run rampant through Toowoomba and its environs during the 1970s, establishing a fearsome reputation for sexual assaults and indiscriminate violence.

The publicity drew out more witnesses, and when the inquest finally opened this April, their testimony would often conjure comparisons with Deliverance, the 1972 film in which four friends become lost in the backwoods of Georgia and are terrorised, sexually and physically, by a group of inbred hillbillies.

"They'd get you in the car and offer you a lift home - but you would never get home," one protected witness, "Gail", said in a statement to the inquest. "When you got in the car there were no door handles inside or window winders ... That's why we couldn't get out of the car. I don't know why they would rape me ... they took turns."

Another victim, "Kerry-Ann", said the Hilton and Laurie gangs were known for snatching women off the street, sometimes throwing them into the boot of the car, and taking them to regular overnight parties convened in a dry riverbed near Goondiwindi: "I was just brutally bashed by whatever those thugs could use on me and repeatedly raped by all of them."

The alleged perpetrators' own families were not immune. One member of the group was reported to have "knock[ed] down his mother by punching her head and stomping on her", while Wayne "Boogie" Hilton's ex-wife Roylene had previously submiitted a statement that "whenever he wanted sex he would just take it whether I consented or not. I resisted him on some occasions but he just punched me up and held me down and forced me into sex."